


Trust

by Jain



Category: Demon's Lexicon - Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: First Time, Incest, M/M, POV Third Person, Past Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-20
Updated: 2010-11-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 07:31:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/134600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jain/pseuds/Jain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ryves brothers take care of each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trust

**Author's Note:**

> Contains spoilers for _The Demon's Covenant_.

When Nick placed one hand on Alan's thigh and another steadying hand on his hip, Alan felt the jolt of denial almost before he felt the emotion that had prompted it: happiness-- _pleasure_ \--at Nick's kneeling in the dirt at his feet, the entire marketplace bearing witness to Nick's obeisance. It was horrible to realize that he shared something with Black Arthur, with Gerald, with all the magicians who wanted to usurp Nick's power. The only thing that made it bearable was the knowledge that Nick, despite appearances, was acting of his own free will.

Nick must have felt the corresponding jerk of Alan's muscles; his fingers tightened on Alan's hip. Practicality, not reassurance, Alan knew. Nick just wanted him to hold still. That made it easier to meet his brother's eyes without guilt and to nod when Nick asked, his voice flat, "You ready?"

And then healing flared through his leg, almost painful in the way the sensations he'd become accustomed to over the years disappeared, to be replaced with something new and wholly different.

* * *

Alan shuffled painfully into the house just ahead of Nick, feeling Nick's eyes on the drag of his lame leg but not actually having the energy to spare for smoothing his gait. Besides, they had more important things to worry about now; Alan's leg was nothing to the mark on his skin and the deadly threat it contained.

"Hey, come here," Nick said casually after they'd dropped their things on the sofa.

Alan quickly evaded Nick's outstretched hand. "You're not going to burn through your limited magic fixing me every day, only for Gerald to undo your hard work whenever he feels like it."

Nick made an exasperated noise. "I just want to make you feel better," he said, half-angry and half-sullen.

"You do," Alan assured him.

Nick looked at him with dark, suspicious eyes. "You mean I make you feel better in some emotional way that has nothing to do with lessening the pain of your actual injury, right?"

Alan smiled at him helplessly. "Yeah, kind of. Except that feeling better emotionally _does_ make my leg hurt less."

"That doesn't make any sense."

Alan shrugged. "That's how it is."

Nick shook his head. "I still think we can do better than that, even if you won't let me heal you." He stepped closer to Alan, who reached for Nick willingly enough now that they'd gotten the whole _You're not going to waste your energy mending me when Gerald obviously wants me broken_ thing hammered out. Only rather than taking Alan's arm and helping him up the stairs to where a hot bath and his bed were calling to him, Nick instead placed his warm, callused hand on Alan's cheek and kissed him.

Alan froze. Not even his well-honed reflexes were up to responding to something as completely insane as Nick's tongue brushing teasingly against his half-parted lips.

Before he could gather his spinning wits, Nick pulled away slightly, though still close enough to touch. "You want this," Nick said. "I could tell, in the Goblin Market," and Alan's mouth, opening to protest that no, no, he'd never wanted this from Nick, snapped shut. Oh. So _that's_ what that strange feeling had been: not a desire to control Nick, but a desire _for_ Nick. It was still awful, wanting someone whose nappies you'd changed, yet it was also, undeniably, less awful than wanting to enslave that person.

And then Nick knelt gracefully before him, and Alan's brain did its best to implode. He'd known for a long time that he was a terrible human being, and here was the proof: his little brother was kneeling at his feet offering himself for _sex_ , and all Alan could think about was the suggestiveness of that pose and about how good Nick looked in black leather and about how gorgeous he would be tied up and at Alan's mercy.

Nick's hands touched the waistband of Alan's jeans, and Alan reached down quickly to stop him. "What about you?"

"What _about_ me?" Nick asked, his voice impatient, though his fingers stilled under Alan's restraining hands. He looked up at Alan through a fall of dark hair that made Alan want to brush it out of his eyes, though letting go of Nick's hands at that point would be, tactically speaking, disastrous.

"You're not just doing this because I want it...are you?"

It felt absurd even having to ask; Nick held only disdain for the principle of self-sacrifice. And yet...he'd been ready to submit to what he'd thought was Alan's betrayal of him. If he were willing to go that far, what else might he do simply to please Alan?

"I like sex," Nick said.

"That's not what I asked."

A familiar frustrated look flashed over Nick's face; the one that said, _I've given you an answer to your question. Why isn't that good enough for you?_

"No, Nick, listen," Alan said, pressing the point quickly before Nick shut down entirely or stormed off in a huff, too impatient to wait for clarity. (Which would be a tempting outcome, but for the fact that Alan knew it wouldn't be the end of it; Nick would inevitably try to seduce him again once he'd regained his temper.) "I know you like sex; that wasn't what I was asking about. And I know you like me, too." He didn't actually know that at all, but it was easiest to pretend until Nick proved him wrong once and for all. "But I've only ever seen you paying attention to girls. I'm a little confused."

The part where they were brothers might also bear mention, but it applied even more to Alan than to Nick: Alan had been Nick's brother almost his whole life; Nick had only been Alan's for a fraction of his. Also, apparently there were limits to Alan's ability to talk about anything under the sun, and that limit involved the Ryves brothers' potentially incestuous relationship.

"I thought I was allowed to not be normal now," Nick said, suddenly angry. "Since we're not trying to hide anymore."

"Oh." Alan swallowed around a painful lump in his throat. "No, you don't have to be normal. Just as long as you don't commit any unnecessary crimes or hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it," he added quickly.

"Not actually stupid, thanks," Nick said.

"So, not being normal? What's that entail for you, exactly?"

Nick grimaced. "Do you need the whole list, or just the parts relevant to me giving you a blowjob?"

"Uh...how about the second for now and the first sometime later."

"Fucking guys and incest," Nick said promptly--and, look, apparently one of them could say the words, no problem, and it wasn't the usual suspect for all things verbal.

"Okay," Alan began, ready with another question...and another after that and another after that, most likely, except that he caught the annoyed look of forced patience on Nick's face and relented. If Nick thought he'd said all that he needed to say, then that would do. "Okay," Alan said again, more decisively, and let go of Nick's hands.

There was the faintest possible pause, and then Nick's hands were sliding with a firm, strong pressure over the front of Alan's jeans.

Alan made a choked sound in the back of his throat, and a corner of Nick's mouth quirked up. "Yes, all right," Alan said exasperatedly. "Now get on with it."

Without hesitation, Nick's fingers flew to the button of his jeans and released it, then slid the zipper down carefully over Alan's not quite hard, but definitely interested cock. Nick leaned forward and inhaled audibly; a moment later he traced his tongue along the fly of Alan's boxers, dipping inside to swipe along hardening flesh.

Alan shuddered at the wet touch. Then Nick hooked his fingers in the waistband of his boxers and eased them down over his growing erection.

Nick stared at it intently. Alan couldn't help but say, "I know you've seen one before. You've been obsessed with yours since you were, what, twelve years old?"

"It's different when it's yours," Nick said succinctly, and then he was leaning forward to capture the head of Alan's cock in his mouth, giving it a wet kiss that shook Alan all the way to his unsteady knees.

"Nick," he said, more than a little shakily, and Nick tightened his grip on Alan's hipbones and sucked him down with even greater intent.

Alan had received a small, but fondly remembered collection of blowjobs in his life, but Nick's was still a step above the rest, and he couldn't tell if it was that he cared about Nick rather more than he'd cared about the handful of girls and the couple of boys who'd been kind enough to grant him the same favor, or if it was just that Nick was absurdly gifted at anything having to do with physicality. In either case, the strong, wet suction around Alan's cock was the best thing he'd felt since...pretty much ever.

Long before he was ready for it to be over, Nick pulled away. Alan had to bite back the protest that sprang to his lips; if Nick wanted to stop, then the last thing Alan could or should do was persuade him otherwise.

All Nick said, though, was, "This'd be easier on your leg if you were in bed."

As if on cue, Alan's leg twinged painfully; he had no idea how he'd managed to ignore it for so long, even with Nick's mouth pretty much redefining Alan's concept of pleasure. "Yeah," he said hoarsely. He cleared his throat. "That's a good point." He fumbled his pants and jeans back up around his hips, buttoning but not zipping the latter, and took Nick's arm.

He almost mentioned that the sofa would work just as well as a bed for taking the pressure off his leg, but then reconsidered. This way he could maybe get to have Nick naked and in bed with him, and even the possibility of that was more than worth the extra minute it would take for them to go upstairs.

Alan's patience was rewarded almost immediately: when they'd gained their room, Nick pulled off his shirt and started working on his jeans, leaving Alan to deal with his own clothes.

They'd been naked in front of each other before, of course, though never quite like _this_. Alan had to keep dragging his eyes away from the evidence of Nick's arousal: the flush high on his cheekbones, his tight nipples, his hard cock.

Nick didn't seem to be suffering from the same sort of distraction. He stripped efficiently and then sprawled out on Alan's bed waiting for him to finish undressing. With that as incentive, Alan made himself finish quickly.

"Cold?" Nick asked when Alan joined him on the bed.

Alan shook his head.

"Good," Nick said and pulled Alan into a kiss.

Apparently that was all the information Nick needed to decide that they were going to be doing this on top of the bedclothes. Oddly, it was that--as well as the sunlight streaming in through the windows--that felt the most strange to Alan. The brotherly incest he could almost take in stride; he was wired wrong, Nick didn't care, wasn't that convenient? But for them to be together like this without hiding under blankets and the cover of darkness was more than wrong: it was inexplicable.

They wouldn't be the Ryves brothers if they didn't break the rules, though, and Alan did his best to take comfort from that familiar fact rather than dwell on how very fucked up this whole situation was.

Nick kissed him lazily for several long, sweet minutes, not trying to hurry them along even though Alan could feel Nick's erection pressed against his thigh and knew that Nick could feel his, as well. Alan was a bit breathless by the time Nick pulled away to ask, "What do you want?"

The pleased hum of his body made it difficult to think. "You don't want to...uh...," he managed before heroically cutting himself off. There wasn't much in this world that sounded better than getting Nick's mouth around his cock again, but he wasn't about to force Nick into it, either.

Nick, annoyingly, seemed to hear all of the things that Alan wasn't allowing himself to say. "That's good, too," he said, looking amused. "I'm just saying, if you want something else, you could tell me."

Alan wanted _everything_ from Nick, and there was no way in hell he was going to tell him that. "Picking up where we left off is fine," he said, as non-committally as possible. "Or I could do you, if you wanted."

Nick made an exasperated noise and rolled out of Alan's arms, and Alan made himself let Nick go, even as he ached to reach for him.

Nick didn't go far; he opened the closet and rummaged about inside until he found one of his weapons bags, then reached into the bag and pulled out a shoebox tied with twine that he tossed onto the bed. Alan quirked a curious eyebrow at him.

"Go ahead and open it," Nick said, crossing the room once more to rejoin Alan on the bed.

Alan slipped off the twine and lifted the box's lid, then felt his skin heat; inside were several leather straps--suitable for restraints or blindfolds or gags--and a couple of long, slim vibrators and a bottle of lubricant and a pair of nipple clamps and... He stopped looking at that point and turned an incredulous gaze on Nick. "You like this sort of thing?" he asked.

Nick shrugged. "The vibrators, sure. They're great. Never really saw the point in most of the rest of it, but some of the girls I've been with used to get hot for this stuff." His lips quirked slightly. "I actually got this out for the lube, but I don't mind using the other stuff if you go for that. Do you?"

"Yes," Alan said, since Nick deserved his honesty, and Nick shrugged again and lay back against the pillows.

"Well, there they are. Feel free to use anything you like on me."

Alan boggled at him. "Wait, you've let girls tie you up?" If he'd ever imagined Nick using the sex toys in the box--and he hadn't, until about five seconds ago--then the only way it made any sense was with Nick as the top.

Nick gave him the look that meant that Alan had said something unbearably stupid; it wasn't a look he wore often, but it was nonetheless unmistakable. "Of course not," he said. "Though a couple of them have asked. But if it's you, I don't mind."

He'd very much earned a kiss for that, so Alan gave him one. Nick returned it willingly enough, though Alan could practically _feel_ his confusion; Nick kissed because kissing felt good, and not for any other reason.

"Close your eyes," he murmured, and Nick obeyed him immediately. Alan took out one of the leather straps and slipped it over Nick's head and tied it neatly, then reached for the other straps so that he could get Nick's wrists and ankles next. He could feel his heartbeat and his breathing both quicken with anticipation and desire.

They'd have to talk about all of this later, no matter how badly Nick wanted to avoid the conversation; if nothing else, Alan would have to apologize for somehow making Nick think that fitting in meant that he had to deny his bisexuality for close to twenty years. But, in the meantime, it was more than enough for Alan to take care of his brother just like this.


End file.
